Home » Excel-Built-In-Functions » Excel-Financial-Functions » Excel-Yield-Function

The Excel YIELD Function

Related Functions:
YIELDDISC
YIELDMAT

Function Description

The Excel YIELD function calculates the Yield of a security that pays periodic interest.

The syntax of the function is:

YIELD( settlement, maturity, rate, pr, redemption, frequency, [basis] )

Where the arguments are as follows:

settlement - The settlement date of the security (i.e. the date that the coupon is purchased).
maturity - The maturity date of the security (i.e. the date that the coupon expires).
rate - The security's annual coupon rate.
pr - The security's price per $100 face value.
redemption - The security's redemption value per $100 face value.
frequency -

The number of coupon payments per year. This must be one of the following:

1 - Annually
2 - Semi-Annually
4 - Quarterly
[basis] -

An optional integer argument which specifies the financial day count basis that is used by the security. Possible values are:

[basis] Day Count Basis
0 (or omitted) US (NASD) 30/360
1 actual/actual
2 actual/360
3 actual/365
4 European 30/360
For a detailed explanation of the financial day count basis rules, see the Wikipedia Day Count Convention page.

Note that the settlement and maturity dates should be supplied to the Yield function as either:

or

Warning: If you attempt to enter text representations of dates into Excel functions, these can be interpreted differently, depending on the date system and date interpretation settings on your computer.


Excel Yield Function Example

The following example shows the Excel Yield function used to calculate the yield on a coupon purchased on 01-Jan-2010, with Maturity date 30-Jun-2015 and a rate of 10%. The price per $100 face value is $101 and the redemption value is $100. Payments are made quarterly and the US (NASD) 30/360 day count basis is used:

  A B
1 Settlement Date: 01-Jan-2010
2 Maturity Date: 30-Jun-2015
3 =YIELD( B1, B2, 10%, 101, 100, 4 )

The above function calculates the yield to be 9.76%.

Note that, in the above example:


For further examples of the Excel Yield function, see the Microsoft Office website.


Yield Function Errors

If you get an error from the Yield function, this is likely to be one of the following:

Common Errors
#NUM! -

Occurs if either:

  • The settlement date is ≥ maturity date
or
  • Invalid numbers are supplied for the rate, pr, redemption, frequency or [basis] arguments.
    (I.e. if either: rate < 0; pr ≤ 0; redemption ≤ 0; frequency is any number other than 1, 2 or 4; or [basis] is any number other than 0, 1, 2, 3 or 4).
#VALUE! -

Occurs if either:

  • Any of the supplied arguments are non-numeric
or
  • The settlement or the maturity arguments are not a valid dates.
Return to the Excel Financial Functions Page
Return to the List of All Built-In Excel Functions